Ben
Ben is one of the most senior members of the group and one of the main reasons for its existence. Founder of the Old Guard and creator of the Skype server, Ben has mastered every game he's set his mind to, but is usually humble enough to claim otherwise. His innocent charm has won him many friends, although in contrast to other members of the community, Ben seldom attempts to introduce these friends to one another or to the server. Through the many rifts and quarrels that have rocked the community, Ben has remained the one constant, always friendly and willing to play. Many would say that he is a voice of calm, if not of reason. History Ben was a friend of Max for all of preschool, but after the two of them went to separate elementary schools, their friendship died off. However, fate would bring them back together again when Peter Gaston, a mutual friend of theirs, reintroduced them in 2014 in preparation for going to Appel Farms summer camp together. The duo quickly reconnected, and played various Minecraft minigames together before branching into a short-lived revival of Factions. Then, during an brief reappearance of Ian's survival server, Ben introduced the gaming group, which at the time consisted of Max, Roy's gamer friends, Everett, and Asher, to Jaleel and Nico, his friends from school (although after 8th grade Jaleel went to a different school). Nico did not take well to the newcomers, but Jaleel happily joined their ranks and played Minecraft with them. As it became clear that Ian's server was on the downswing, Jaleel urged the group to migrate to League of Legends, a move Ben supported. The transition was not entirely successful, with most of Roy's friends and Everett soon losing interest and drifting away from the group. In the wake of this, a new gaming group took shape around Jaleel and Ben, featuring Max, Eitan, Roy, Nico, Asher, and later Cypress, Davis, and Ella. Ben thrived in this uncertain environment, playing with anyone and everyone. In 2016, the loosely defined gaming group reached its peak, just as Max and Ben had their final hurrah at Appel Farms. However, towards the end of 2016 Ben created a Skype chat called "Weeb Nation", intended to formalize what had been a nomadic group up until this point. This had the effect of introducing factionalism into the community, dividing them into those who were in Weeb Nation and those who weren't. Roy and Asher, who were unwilling to cope with the degree of spam in the chat, refused to join and were gradually left behind. Ben, as owner of the Skype chat, gradually came to be seen as something of a leader, a perception he actively attempted to discourage. This led to a rift forming between him and Max when Max began blaming various issues in the server on Ben's "management". To avoid the burdens of leadership, Ben transferred ownership to Jaleel, who was much more ruthless in his usage of owner powers. This, along with the growing popularity of Discord and Max picking fights with almost everyone in the group, led the group to abandon Skype and move to Discord. In Discord, the aforementioned factionalism reached fanatical highs, with Jaleel, Ben, and Cypress using roles to essentially create a caste system within the Weeb Nation server. Since everyone was fine with this besides Max, the server achieved a state of tranquility until new members began being added (starting with Ben's invitee Eric Ross). Eventually, a critical mass of dissidents built up, and after the @everyone Crisis, Weeb Nation imploded. To fill the vacuum left behind, Max founded Temporary Empire. At first, Ben was extremely resistant to the new server. Despite being offered an admin position, Ben left repeatedly. When this boycott failed to shut down Tempire, Ben instead took part in Weeb Nation's many attempts to sabotage the group. Eventually, he reluctantly accepted its existence, and by 2019 was considered a full-fledged member. Since then, he has come to be known as a pillar of the community, taking part in Magic, League, DnD, and nearly everything else Tempire has to offer (with the notable exception of the Week of Shenanigans). However, Ben has put little effort into building sincere connections with its members, priding himself on the distinction between Weeb Nation's "friend group" and Tempire's "community". Whether he will ever fully accept Tempire is up to him. What Lies Beneath Ben is a seemingly timid jack-of-all-trades who gets along with everyone and quarrels with no one. However, this smiling exterior conceals an objectivistic attitude towards friendship and a Darwinistic, deregulatory view of how a Discord server should be run. Though this side of him is usually overlooked, it has become increasingly apparent as Ben has become increasingly critical of the way Max runs Tempire. In the controversy following the @everyone Crisis, Ben famously stated that "if {Hidden Ones} want to be friends they are welcome to actively reach out", arguing that it is the responsibility of an individual to insert themselves into a group. Ben champions a trickle-down economics style of community where the established members enjoy themselves as much as possible and new joiners either join in or leave. According to him, people who can't adapt might as well leave the server, something Ben himself did on his first day in Temporary Empire. These conservative leanings also manifest themselves in his behavior towards server privileges. He helped initiate the @everyone Crisis, and in the aftermath argued that members would self-regulate their @everyone use and that he himself would continue using @everyone when he felt like it. He also supported the unpopular addition of DadBot and took part in the nativist spam that followed Kameron's introduction to Temporary Empire, actions which demonstrated wholehearted disregard for the idea of a systematized server. Though these were his first instances of open aggression towards regulation, they were not entirely unexpected; Ben almost never used the tag system, and had previously avoided the question of leadership by giving ownership of the Skype server to Jaleel. These opinions aren't unique to Ben or even necessarily bad. As seen during the Grace Period, Weeb Nation is at its best when its members can enjoy themselves as much as possible without needing to worry about other people. The problem arises only when it does come time to worry about other people; Ben's ability to tune out negative stimuli, coupled with his objectivistic view of friendship, have rendered him incapable of reciprocity. Lengthy Conclusions Are Overrated Despite his lack of respect for Tempire, Ben is still a valued member of its community and an essential part of its history. He is a charismatic everyman whose game library and friend gallery are so extensive that he will never have to look further than the touch of a button to acquire companionship. Category:League of Legends Category:The Old Guard Category:The Big Three